The biology of how a shark moves, or how it catches a sea lion, isn’t necessarily the first thing you might think about when thinking about the startup world.

But at Cross Campus, a Santa Monica-based innovation center, they have a sculptor practicing his craft, making sea animals, right in their front window. When you mention the shark -- you’ll learn he’s also made a sculpture of a whale and a jellyfish that is hanging out in the back.

Cross Campus is a 11,000 square foot space, rife with activity. In a city as wide as Los Angeles, it serves as a startup gathering space with a university feel.

Like a college campus, there can be many activities going on at once -- a meeting among academics in one conference room, a pitch meeting in the next, a large-scale event in the main living room, and a slew of startups still working on their businesses in a sound-proof room, where founders can work all night without distraction.

Dato and co-founder Ronen Olshansky formed the large membership-based center, combining their backgrounds. Dato was previously with Upstart.LA, a local accelerator. Olshansky had been with StudyHall, focusing on how to educate entrepreneurs.

“It was a peanut butter and chocolate moment. Both of those things are great on their own. But together they are even better,” said Dato.

The place officially opened this year in September.

Their campus model has a three-prong focus:

Membership - Applicants can apply for membership as startup teams or as individuals. At any given time, Cross Campus has one to two dozen companies working in the space. (About the companies they house, Dato said, “Our success measure is not how long they stay, but how soon they outgrow us.”)

Education - Cross Campus offers a variety of classes (such as business coaching for women entrepreneurs, JavaScriptU, video editing, iOS basics, etc.) and they are in the process of developing curriculum in a variety of disciplines.

Events - Their location plays a significant role in the growing Silicon Beach community, as they are located in Santa Monica, on the Westside of L.A., right in the heart of the startup epicenter. They aim for high-level events that spark creativity and education opportunities. Though they only officially opened last month, they've already hosted a Presidential debate-watching party, a fashion startups panel, the Founders Institute, TEDx, among other gatherings.

In November, they will host: Mindshare, a monthly interactive salon, which this month will focus on the origins of the universe, including talks from UCLA faculty members; Bobby Shriver and the One Foundation; and a bootcamp for aspiring TEDx speakers.

Cross Campus is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Creativity is something they wish to highlight and even embody. Besides the talented sculptor, details within the space exude a certain craftsmanship. Even the whiteboards, storage units, tables, and some furniture has been constructed by hand. Their front desk is made of Legos, a project completed by their summer associates.

You can see the desk being built here:

Olshansky said, “I can tell you how the walls were built -- it was with intention. I can tell you how this table was designed -- it’s with intention. We are intentional about the details because we want to create something special. And we’re setting a high bar, sending a message that those are the type of people we are trying to attract.”

As for L.A.’s future in tech and entrepreneurship in general, the pair see a global shift happening and culture change already cementing itself.

Both Olshansky and Dato come from finance backgrounds; having worked at Lehman Brothers, JP Morgan Chase, and Arthur Andersen, and in early stage ventures, they are able to speak to the capital side of the equation, as well as the talent.

“We are going to look back and see that this was the tipping point of a very deep secular trend. All of the ingredients are here: we’ve got the academic institutions, we’ve got the the quality of life that drives people here, we’ve got a city that has strengths in everything from aeronautics to storytelling to fashion,” said Olshansky.

“There is also an immense pool of capital sitting in the 10 to 15 mile radius around us. People are starting to understand how gratifying it is to invest money into entrepreneurs at the seed stage and how potentially lucrative it can be. If even a fraction of the wealth in L.A. started to focus on providing funding for these early stage companies, that’s going to be the fuel for driving this boom.”

Dato said, “I went through this as part of Web 1.0 and the initial part of the Internet, the first boom in Northern California when companies like Apple were growing. I see the same sparks flying here now.”

“It’s not about competing with Silicon Valley or New York or Seattle or Boston. I just think we’ve been great at this here and now we’ve got some infrastructure, which is helping to amplify our efforts,” said Dato. “I wouldn’t be surprised if 5 or 10 years down the road, L.A. is recognized as the number one entrepreneurial place in the world.”

I’m a writer and digital editor. Previously, I served as senior digital editor at the Los Angeles Times. I also headed mobile technology and emerging platforms for latimes.com. Formerly, I’ve been on staff at Entrepreneur Magazine, and have written for various national publ...